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Lio Rush
| birth_place = Lanham, Maryland | death_date = | death_place = | resides = | billed = Washington, D.C. | trainer = MCW Training Center | debut = October 11, 2014 | retired = }} Lionel Gerard Green (November 11, 1994) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Lio Rush. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where he wrestles on 205 Live and WWE NXT. In WWE, Rush is a former NXT Cruiserweight Champion. He previously wrestled in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he was the winner of the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament, as well as in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he was the former CZW World Heavyweight Champion and a former two-time CZW Wired Champion. Professional wrestling career Early career Green debuted under the ring name "LI Green", but after a negative response to the name from promoters, he changed it to "Lennon Duffy". Independent circuit (2014–2017) He learned wrestling during 2014 with MCW Training Center. He debuted at the 2014 Tribute To The Legends and created a tag team named "Sudden Impact" with Patrick Clark. On July 18, he won the Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup XV, defeating Brandon Scott, Drolix, Eddie Edwards, Matt Cross and Shane Strickland in a six-way elimination match. On October 3, he and his teammate Patrick Clark won the MCW Tag Team Championship, defeating The Hell Cats and The Ecktourage. They lost the title thirteen days later to The Ecktourage. He also competed for Evolve Wrestling where he defeated Fred Yehi on November 6. He lost his match against Ethan Page the following day. Lucha Libre Elite announced Rush as a participant in the Elite World Championship. On Thursday June 23, 2016, Rush defeated David Tita in the first day of the Elite World Championship to make the quarter final. On Saturday June 25, 2016, he was defeated by Michael Elgin. On February 18, 2017, Rush made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla at "Only Kings Understand Each Other", where he was defeated by Ricochet. On May 27, 2017, Rush defeated Ken Broadway at House of Glory's "Adrenaline" to capture the HOG Crown Jewel Championship, ending Broadway's almost year long reign. Rush lost the title to HOG World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Gangone in a title for title match at House of Glory's "Never Trust a Snake" on July 1. Combat Zone Wrestling (2014–2017) Green, as Lennon Duffy, made his debut for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) on December 31, 2014, defeating Slugger Clark. He and Clark began to compete together as known as Sudden Impact. On September 12, he changed his name to "Lio Rush" and started a feud with Joey Janela, where he faced him, Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley at Down With the Sickness 2015, match won by Janela. At Night of Infamy, on November 21, he wrestled Joey Janela for the CZW Wired Championship on a losing effort. On December 12, during Cage of Death XVII, he won the CZW Wired TV Championship, defeating Janela for the title. He made his first successful defense against Kevin Bennett on January 16. He lost his title against Joey Janela on February 13 at CZW Seventeen. On March 26, 2016, at CZW Proving Ground, Rush defeated Joey Janela, Dave Crist and David Starr to win the CZW Wired Championship. Rush lost the Wired title back to Janela in a Ladder Match at Down with The Sickness on September 10, 2016, After his feud with Janela was over he stepped out of the Wired Championship picture and started a feud with Sami Callihan becoming a heel in the process for the first time in his career and adopted a darker gimmick. On May 13, 2017, Rush beat Joe Gacy for the CZW World Heavyweight Championship. He lost the belt to Davey Richards at a non-CZW show, ending his reign at only 17 days. On July 8, Rush announced that he would be making his final CZW appearance on August 5. Rush defeated Janela at CZW Once in a Lifetime for his last match in CZW and against Janela. Ring of Honor (2015–2017) Six months after his professional wrestling debut, Rush took part in a Ring of Honor (ROH) training camp. He, however, was not signed due to his limited experience. After getting more experience wrestling on the independent circuit, Rush took part in another training camp and, now with the backing of Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino, Adam Cole, Jay Lethal and Kyle O'Reilly, was signed as a participant in the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament. Rush made his debut in ROH on December 19, 2015, beating Vinny Marseglia in a dark match. Rush went on to compete in the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament, defeating Jason Kincaid on January 9, going on to defeat Brian Fury on February 6 to win the tournament. On March 31, ROH announced that Rush had signed a contract with the promotion. On Supercard of Honor X Night 1 at April 1, 2016, Rush unsuccessfully challenged Jay Lethal for ROH World Championship. At Survival of the Fittest night one Rush defeated Misterioso Jr., Hangman Page and Sho in a Four corner survival match to be in the Survival of the Fittest tournament final. The Next night Rush was in the Survival of the Fittest match where he was the last to before he was eliminated by Bobby Fish. At Final Battle Rush replaced ACH in the Six-man tag team tournament final to determine the first ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions where he teamed with Kushida and Jay White and was defeated by The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan and Vinny Marseglia). In March 2017, it was reported that Rush had given his notice to ROH. World Wrestling Entertainment NXT (2017–present) On July 9, 2017, it was reported that Rush had been offered a NXT contract and that his signing was imminent. WWE officially confirmed the signing on August 21. Rush made his first televised appearance on the October 4 episode of NXT, where he was attacked by The Velveteen Dream (his former tag team partner Patrick Clark). On the October 11 episode of NXT, Rush was defeated by Dream in a match. Shortly afterwards, Rush made a joke on Twitter about Emma following her release from WWE, which resulted in criticism from both NXT and main roster wrestlers and forced him to issue an apology. The tweet resulted in Rush being pulled from all NXT events until November 30. He returned to NXT on the January 10, 2018 episode in a match against Lars Sullivan, which he lost. He went on to spend the remainder of the year in NXT Live events as well as episode appearances on NXT television. Rush was also participated in matches involving title opportunities for the NXT North American Championship. After his tenures on the 205 Live and Monday Night RAW brands between June 2018 and March 2019, Rush returned to NXT television on the September 18 episode, where he defeated Oney Lorcan to win a No.1 Contendership for the Cruiserweight Championship. The following month on the October 9 episode of NXT, Rush defeated the Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak. After the match, NXT General Manager William Regal was interrupted by a returning Gulak, who instead first presented the title belt to Rush and shook his hand in sportsmanship. Afterwards, General Manager Regal presented the belt to Rush in official acknowledgement of his victory. Winning the Cruiserweight Championship also marked Rush's first title reign in WWE. 205 Live (2018-present) Rush debuted in 2018 on the June 26 episode of 205 Live, defeating Dewey James. He went on to enjoy an undefeated record during the Summer of 2018, in singles competition against opponents including Noam Dar, Akira Tozawa, Lince Dorado and Colin Delaney. His undefeated record reached an end on the October 10 episode of 205 Live, losing to Lince Dorado. As a member of the roster, Rush faced new opponents including Tony Nese, Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, TJP and Kalisto. During his debut year on the 205 Live brand, Rush also wrestled in No.1 Contendership matches for the Cruiserweight Championship. Returning the following year in 2019, Rush appeared on the January 15 episode of 205 Live, where he defeated Lince Dorado. This was Rush's final match for the month as he went on to make appearances on the Monday Night RAW brand the following month during February and March. Rush did return to 205 Live, on the February 5 episode of 205 Live. There he competed against Akira Tozawa, Cedric Alexander and Humberto Carrillo in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination Match for the No.1 Contendership to the Cruiserweight title. RAW (2019) After making appearances during the February WWE Live events, Rush debuted an alliance with the recently-returning Bobby Lashley. They made their televised debut as a team during the 2019 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. There, Lashley and Rush lost a two-on-one handicap title match against the defending Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor. Rush debuted on the February 10 episode of Monday Night RAW, teaming with Lashley in a tag match lost against Finn Bálor & Ricochet. He made his final appearance on the March 18 episode of Monday Night RAW, in a tag match with Lashley, losing to the team of Finn Bálor and Braun Strowman. Personal life Green resides in Lanham, Maryland, where he wrestled in high school before becoming a professional wrestler. He has two sons named Dakari and Dakai. He welcomed his first son, Dakari Lorenzo Green, on June 12, 2013. He welcomed his second son, Dakai Liam Green, on February 15, 2018. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **''Dragon's Call'' / The Final Hour ''(Split-legged frog splash) **''Rush Hour (Standing moonsault side slam, sometimes from the top rope) **Twisting inverted double underhook facebuster - 2017–present *'Signature moves' **Multiple kick variations ***Back ***Bicycle ***Drop ***Enzuigiri, sometimes after schoolboy ***Shoot **Somersault plancha **Suicide Dive **Tilt-a-Whirl DDT **Double underhook facebuster *'Tag teams and stables' **Sudden Impact (w/ Patrick Clark) *'Wrestlers managed' **Bobby Lashley *'Nicknames' **"The One" **"Blackheart" **'"Man of the Hour"' **'"23-Years Old Piece of Gold"' *'Entrance themes' **"Not Dead Yet" by Tour of Duty (ROH) **"GOLD RUSH" (CZW) **"M.O.T.H" by Troy Andretti (CZW) **Paint It, Black by Ciara (CZW) **'"I Came to Collect"' by CFO$ (WWE/NXT) Championships and accomplishments *'Combat Zone Wrestling' **CZW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **CZW Wired Championship (2 times) *'Dramatic Dream Team' **Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time) *'House of Glory' **HOG Crown Jewel Championship (1 time) *'Maryland Championship Wrestling' **MCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Patrick Clark **Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup (2015, 2016) *''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' **PWI ranked him #'120' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017 *'Ring of Honor' **Top Prospect Tournament (2016) *'WWE NXT' **NXT Cruiserweight Championship (1 time) See also *Lio Rush's event history External links * Lio Rush profile at CAGEMATCH.net * Official Facebook page * Profile Category:2014 debuts Category:African American wrestlers Category:American wrestlers Category:Former amateur wrestlers Category:Living people Category:Maryland wrestlers Category:Combat Zone Wrestling alumni Category:Maryland Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup winners Category:West Virginia Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Male wrestlers Category:Next Level Wrestling alumni Category:America's Most Liked Wrestling alumni Category:1994 births Category:House Of Pain Wrestling Federation alumni Category:Platinum Pro Wrestling alumni Category:IGNITE Wrestling alumni Category:Division Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Ring of Honor alumni Category:World Wrestling Entertainment current roster Category:Wrestling's Best Of The West alumni Category:205 Live current roster Category:Managers and valets Category:NXT Cruiserweight Champions Category:WWE NXT current roster